MARILIA-SP 1930s, 1940s & 1950s: ROLDÃO IGNÁCIO LACERDA, my Father's cousin

Roldão Ignácio Lacerda in the 1940s.

My Mother had 6 brothers & 5 sisters; my Father had 3 brothers & 3 sisters...so I was used to meet 'uncles' and 'aunties' by the droves. Sometimes, I didn't know whether the person I was introduced to was my cousin or uncle.

After we left Marília-SP and moved to São Paulo in December 1960, I had the chance to meet further relatives I had never heard of before. One of these 'new' relatives was this man called Roldão, who was a cousin of my Father, João Amorim.

Maria Rosa de Jesus, Roldão's mother was my Father's Mother's sister. Roldão was actually older than him by 3 years. The reason why I had never seen him in Marília was due to his having moved to São Paulo in the late 1940s and as he owned a bar in Penha he could hardly take time off and go visit his relatives 500 km away westward. Now, let me introduce Roldão Ignácio Lacerda properly and explain how we are related.

My Father's grandparents were Florencia Rosa de Jesus & Quintino Pavão de Oliveira who had at least 10 children; all of them were born in or around São Sebastião do Rio Bonito-RJ.

1. Olímpio Pavão de Oliveira * 26 July 1891

2. Altina Rosa de Jesus * 29 June 1893

3. Maria Rosa de Jesus * 6 June 1895

4. Altina Rosa de Jesus aka ALBINA * 2nd August 1897

5. Anna Rosa de Jesus * 8 September 1900

6. Augusta Rosa de Jesus * 20 May 1904

7. José Pavão de Oliveira * 12 April 1906

8. Joaquim Pavão de Oliveira aka Quincas * 19 April 1908

9. João Pavão de Oliveira * 26 October 1910

10. Margarida Rosa de Oliveira * 30 June 1915

You may have wondered why there were two girls called ALTINA... Quintino, who was parcial to drinking of alcoholic beverage, pinga aka cachaça, was a bit fuzzy when my Grandmother was born on 2nd August 1897. He went to a Registry Office (cartório) to have the new baby registered and when the Official asked what name it would be called he said: ALTINA. In his fog he probably must have forgotten his second child had already been named ALTINA. When he got back home, Florencia didn't like what she heard but as they didn't have the means to rectify it, it was settled the second Altina would be called ALBINA... and that's how the family ended up with two Altinas.

By 1920, most of this family ended up migrating to São Paulo state trying to get away from the Spanish Flu Pandemic (which actually started in China or Kansas, USA, according to different sources) that was wreaking havoc in Rio de Janeiro state.

On the move to São Paulo, Altina, who was already married to a man called Quintino (like her father) went astray from the pack and ended up going to a different region in the state. Everyone else headed south to Ourinhos-SP, near the board of the state of Paraná, with its great coffee plantations where most of them found employment. That was the last time they saw Altina. Some years later Fernando Antonio Amorim who married the second Altina aka Albina made an effort to find the long-lost sister-in-law sending letters to radio programmes specialized in finding long lost relatives but to no avail.

Let's zoom in on Maria Rosa de Jesus and see what happened to her. Maria married José Ignácio Lacerda in São Sebastião do Rio Bonito-RJ and had 3 boys:

1. Jacinto was born in 1919, but died in infancy. Soon after the couple joined the rest of the family and moved to Ourinhos-SP.

2. Roldão Ignácio Lacerda was born on 23rd November 1920, in Ourinhos-SP;

3. a 3rd boy was still born in 1921 or early 1922 and due to the fact of the baby had died in Maria's womb for a few days Maria ended up dying of septicemia (blood poisoning).

As soon as José Ignácio saw his wife's funeral, he up and went away abandoning little Roldão who ended up being cared for by his grandmother Florencia Rosa de Jesus who lived with her not yet married children José (14), Joaquim aka Quincas (12), João (10) and Margarida (5).

Pavão de Oliveira-Rosa de Jesus family members gravitated around Albina Rosa de Jesus who had been married to Fernando Antonio Amorim since 1918, before they left for Ourinhos-SP. Fernando who was a dutiful man - after working as a labourer at coffee or cotton plantations - managed to work as a chauffeur for Jacinto Ferreira de Sá who had been a local landowner and mayor of Ourinhos since its becoming a city on 20 March 1919.

In July 1932, Fernando's luck suddenly came to an end and he became unemployed. Jacinto Sá lost his job as Ourinhos mayor when troops from Rio Grande do Sul stormed the town and deposed him. São Paulo state lost its sheen (power) when Getúlio Vargas became President of Brazil. It took a while for Fernando to make his next move. By 1933, he had moved to Marília-SP and let a house on Rua Minas Gerais to settle the family.

Albina's mother Florencia with her 3 kids and her grandson Roldão soon joined her daughter and son-in-law Fernando in Marília. José Pavão had died suddenly when he exerted himself too much on putting out a fire and came in contact with cold water afterwards. People said José died of 'stupor'.

Fernando Antonio Amorim had all sorts of jobs in Marília. He owned a grocery store for some time but probably wasn't cut out for this sort of business. He then started selling imported women's fashion magazines - known as 'figurinos' by the populace - from town to town in the state of São Paulo and Northern Paraná.

José Ignácio Lacerda in Brotas-SP, in 1941, soon after Roldão met him for the 1st time.

One day, in one of his many business trips, Fernando bumped into his former brother-in-law José Ignácio Lacerda who lived in Brotas-SP and had a formed a whole new family by then. When Fernando was back in Marília he told Roldão he had met his father by chance. Roldão got all worked up and wouldn't know peace-of-mind again until he went and met his real father.

Roldão took a train and went to Brotas, met his father for the 1st time in his life and also his half-brother Aparecido Lacerda aka Cido. He decided to stay in Brotas and Fate made he meet a tall girl called Aparecida Coniglian aka Cida, whose father was a military man. Cida would soon become his wife. Roldão & Cida got married in 1944. Roldão was 24 years old, Cida was 19 (born in 1925). They had 3 children:

1. Antonio Ignácio Lacerda (30 January 1945) born in Brotas-SP

2. Diva de Lacerda (6 October 1946) in Barra Bonita-SP

3. José Carlos Ignácio Lacerda (10 February 1950) in Penha, São Paulo.

Now we come to a junction where I don't know how but Roldão and Cida, after getting married and having had their first child (Toninho) in Brotas-SP they moved to Barra Bonita-SP circa 1946... and before the 1940s were up they moved to São Paulo and settled at Penha where they lived for the rest of their lives.

from left to right: Edes Garbelini (married to Mario Amorim, who probably took the photo), Toninho, José Carlos, Roldão & Diva, his only daughter.